1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to nonpigmented aromatic alcohol-based wood stains. More particularly, the invention relates to nonpigmented aromatic alcohol based stains which are in gelled form.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Stains for wood have conventionally been available in four forms: Pigment in oil, dye solutions--which utilize water as the solvent, dye solutions in which the solvents are petroleum hydrocarbons, and dye solutions which utilize aliphatic alcohols such as methyl, ethyl and isopropyl as the solvents singly or in combination with one or more such alcohols and/or glycol ethers such as Cellosolve [Trade Mark of Union Carbide].
Pigmented stains are only suitable for staining either low density open grain woods or rough woods. Such stains depend on the fiber structure of the wood being sufficiently open to allow the pigment particles to lodge. Where such is not possible as is the case with smooth sanded tight grained woods such as maple, the stain cannot be applied by the wipe on method but has to be laid on in the way of a paint in which case the opacity of the pigment greatly detracts from the overall appearance of the wood surface.
Furthermore, it becomes substantially more difficult to attain a furniture finish of factory quality, due to uneveness of brush application.
Stains consisting of dye solutions which utilize water as a solvent have good colour and are suitable on high density smooth woods; however, the water present in these stains raises the grain of the wood thereby necessitating additional sanding operation and may even result in the warping of thinner woods.
Stains consisting of dye solutions which utilize petroleum hydrocarbons as solvents, while not having the drawbacks of the aforementioned stains, have another drawback which is their tendency to bleed into the varnishes which are applied as top coats whenever these varnishes contain hydrocarbon solvents which are also capable of dissolving the dyes. Since the great majority of varnishes or wood top coats used by the public are of this type, such stains are not commonly available for home use.
Stains consisting of dye solutions which utilize aliphatic alcohols and/or glycol ether solvents as already mentioned do not have the draw backs of the previous three kinds of stains already mentioned, but present the home user or craftsman with problems of a different kind. The major problem in this respect is the difficulty of applying them evenly due to the extremely fast evaporation of the solvent, so that the only way to apply them uniformly is by spraying, a technique which requires equipment and skills not ordinarily available to the home refinisher or small scale industrial contractor.
(1) With the exception of the dye in water system, the other three contain toxic and/or flammable solvents providing yet another drawback to their use.
(2) Thus, of the above four systems only the pigment in oil stains have wide spread use in spite of their limitations, because they are easily used.